Board logo

Rear Springs - Live Axle
Dick Axtell - 7/10/13 at 08:05 PM

Took car out today for its first real road trial, (collecting grandson from school).

Hmmmm. Great fun being out in school traffic, for a while, but experience marred by excessively hard ride. Which was expected, as Procomp advised that I should change to 150lb rear spring rate.

OK - so what are the length dimensions for these rear springs? Checked them on the car, and fitted length - 8 inches. Free length might be 9 inches, but I suspect that I'll have to remove the rear coil-overs, remove the springs and check more carefully. Just wondered if anyone else might have the necessary spring info.

snapper - 8/10/13 at 05:45 AM

They are specific to your car so remove and measure
Ride height can be altered by the spring platform a little as can preload
If you go for less poundage springs car will be lower at he back for same spring length, winding up the spring platforms can lift it back

dhutch - 8/10/13 at 06:06 AM

What are the dampers like?

I got a pair of new springs and dampers from procomp (protech dampers, forget the spring make) and it transformed the car, ride and handling, admittedly I was starting off with totally shot dampers, but even that's far from uncommon.

You will never get a rollsroyce soupy wollowing ride due to the low mass, but its very managable.


Daniel

Dick Axtell - 8/10/13 at 08:54 AM

Thanks for your comments. After further thought, reckon I'll just have to go back to Procomp. They have the damper rigs which make spring change so easy. So its back to the lock-up!

Quote - "What are the dampers like?" - unquote.
Non-adjustable (cheapo) coil-overs, bought long time ago. Probable upgrade candidate - next year!

[Edited on 8/10/13 by Dick Axtell]

daveb666 - 8/10/13 at 09:07 AM

Check your pre-load settings. My Gaz shocks have hard/soft settings and I started on 'hard' and it was truly truly awful.

JAG - 8/10/13 at 10:57 AM

Hi Dick,

I have 150lb springs on the Live axle rear of my car - sorry I can't tell you the lengths etc... What spring rate do you have?

My dampers are adjustable but they are still on the softest setting on the rear and I'd still call the ride 'firm'

I believe that the vast majority of the dampers we use on these cars are over damped for such light weight cars.

Dick Axtell - 8/10/13 at 03:00 PM

quote:
Originally posted by JAG
Hi Dick,
I have 150lb springs on the Live axle rear of my car - sorry I can't tell you the lengths etc... What spring rate do you have?
My dampers are adjustable but they are still on the softest setting on the rear and I'd still call the ride 'firm'
I believe that the vast majority of the dampers we use on these cars are over damped for such light weight cars.

Hi Justin,

Dunno what rate existing rear springs are, only that they're far too stiff. Matt, from Procomp, bounced on the back end of my car, and it seemed very nearly solid!! Deffo over - rated, and their suggestion was 150lb replacements. Will probably have to wait until next week to sort them out.

Thanks for your observations, noted one re overdamping.

[Edited on 8/10/13 by Dick Axtell]